My Way or the Highway

November 1, 2004
In this perceptive and practical guide, Chambers, the author of The Bad Attitude Survival Guide and president of Trinity Solutions, an Atlanta-based training and consulting company, prescribes ways to cope with bosses of the most irritating order--the micromanagers. Almost anyone who has collected a paycheck will recognize the destructive managerial behaviors that Chambers describes with piercing acuity in this volume--behaviors such as not listening to others, exercising power indiscriminately, feeding on the failure of subordinates, delegating blame, personalizing disagreements, imposing arbitrary deadlines, mismanaging meetings and delegating responsibility while keeping a vise grip on authority. "For most micromanagers," Chambers writes, "the term empowerment means the sharing of responsibility with others, but not the sharing of authority. They exercise control by requiring that others receive their approval for decisions, changes, and courses of action.... This is a major contributor to the high stress levels in today's work environment." Not only does Chambers offer hard-nosed advice for employees bashing pates with micromanagers, but he gives guidance to those who must supervise them. Though his advice basically amounts to talking to your micromanager, involving him or her in "Determining How the Behavior Will Be Changed" and monitoring those changes, this book can be a helpful resource for readers who are frazzled by a hands-on-everything boss and those who need to purge their own management styles of unproductive attitudes.

November 29, 2004
In this perceptive and practical guide, Chambers, the author of The Bad Attitude Survival Guide and president of Trinity Solutions, an Atlanta-based training and consulting company, prescribes ways to cope with bosses of the most irritating order--the micromanagers. Almost anyone who has collected a paycheck will recognize the destructive managerial behaviors that Chambers describes with piercing acuity in this volume--behaviors such as not listening to others, exercising power indiscriminately, feeding on the failure of subordinates, delegating blame, personalizing disagreements, imposing arbitrary deadlines, mismanaging meetings and delegating responsibility while keeping a vise grip on authority. "For most micromanagers," Chambers writes, "the term empowerment means the sharing of responsibility with others, but not the sharing of authority. They exercise control by requiring that others receive their approval for decisions, changes, and courses of action.... This is a major contributor to the high stress levels in today's work environment." Not only does Chambers offer hard-nosed advice for employees bashing pates with micromanagers, but he gives guidance to those who must supervise them. Though his advice basically amounts to talking to your micromanager, involving him or her in "Determining How the Behavior Will Be Changed" and monitoring those changes, this book can be a helpful resource for readers who are frazzled by a hands-on-everything boss and those who need to purge their own management styles of unproductive attitudes.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.